


A Sentiment Remembered

by esmereldajuniper



Series: Nothing Fades Like the Light [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, perish the thought of actually talking about feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:33:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26521477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esmereldajuniper/pseuds/esmereldajuniper
Summary: Weeks spent dancing around the deeper feelings that Alada Trevelyan and Varric Tethras may or may not have for each other, come to a head at the arrival of one of Varric’s old friends.
Relationships: Female Inquisitor/Varric Tethras, Varric Tethras/Female Trevelyan
Series: Nothing Fades Like the Light [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686298
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	A Sentiment Remembered

1.

Alada exhaled, twisting her back and letting the stiff pain wash away from her in sweet relief. Three hours practicing the latest Orlesian dances had to be the worst way to spend her afternoon and the perfect way to tighten her back. At least Vivienne and Josephine were fair and patient teachers who ignored her steady stream of complaints. Most of the time at least. In the end, Alada called a stop to their lesson, insisting that if the Orlesians expected her to dance the Chevalier’s Waltz then she would ask either one of them to be her partner and they could lead her right into the court’s heart. Now the rest of the evening was hers to do as she wished. She would not be needed by any of the advisors and there were no visiting nobles to entertain, so the possibilities for tonight were endless. 

Outside of Josephine’s office, sunset filtered through the stained glass windows of the Great Hall and onto the bustling residents of Skyhold gathering around the tables for dinner. She looked for her girls in all the commotion, expecting them to be right outside Josephine’s door waiting for her, but was met with empty space gathering dust. Alada tutted, walking around a small group to get a better view of Varric’s fireplace, hoping to see them there. They spent most of their free time with him talking, writing stories, or people watching. If it meant they weren’t causing several headaches and Varric didn’t mind, then she didn’t either. Instead of seeing the three huddled around each other, there stood a hooded person laughing beside Varric with their hand resting firmly on his arm. The smile Varric gave them was different from the one he wore everyday: this one was warmer, tender almost, and Alada swore she had never seen it before. She walked over to ask if he had seen her girls, nothing else, but she kept her steps quiet to listen in on their conversation before they noticed. 

“Awww. Don’t worry. I’ll protect you. We’ll just have to-”

Having been caught, Alada halted and schooled her features into distant passivity as she studied the stranger. The hood obscured most of their face but nothing could hide the charming smile directed her way. 

“Well, this is a surprise. You’re the Inquisitor, right? Bianca Davri, at your service.”

 _Bianca?_ Alada wanted nothing more than to investigate further, but the look on Varric’s face could only be described as pained so she let the matter go, for now. She tried to keep her voice as level and nonchalant as possible, but could not stop the gut wrenching feeling twisting inside her at the sight of Bianca’s hand still on his arm. 

“Why are you here?”

“Right to the point huh? I see the rumors about you are true.”

Even with people milling around the hall, a taut silence descended, creating a bubble around the trio. They stared at each other, assessing strengths and weaknesses, and no one backed down from investigating eyes. Varric spoke first, not because he wanted to, but he felt he had to do something to break this awkwardness.

“Bianca has a lead on where the main entrance of Red Lyrium arriving on the surface is.”

“And you stumbled upon this by yourself?” Alada questioned. 

“I never stumble, Inquisitor. I know exactly what I’m doing.”

Alada breathed through her nose. She had neither the time nor the patience to deal with another person giving her roundabout answers, and she did not let her sharp gaze leave Bianca’s easy smile. Varric cleared his throat, drawing their attention back to him and tried to ease the palpable tension in their small corner. 

“I think it’s a good lead.”

“Then we’ll look into it,” Alada answered him quickly, she knew, but if it would end this conversation then she did not care. Anything to get away from them, anything to stop the hammering of her heart and the sick feeling lodged within her. Her eyes tracked Bianca when she squeezed Varric’s arm and drew him closer to her with a flutter of her eyes. 

“Great! I’ll be waiting, Varric.”

Bianca let him go without acknowledging Alada and they watched her disappear into a sea of people out the main castle. A beat passed before they faced one another, not meeting the other’s eyes and edging ever so slightly away. Now somewhat alone, neither had enough courage to say what they were really thinking. Alada tugged on her necklace and looked down at the empty space between their feet. Her words were slow and she could not bring herself to look at him,

“So, that was Bianca.”

She missed the tightening of his jaw and him fiddling with one of his earrings, as he stared at the path of Bianca’s exit. His sharp intake of breath, ringing within her ears, served as her only indication of his discomfort. He can’t have this conversation, not now, and especially not with her so he did what he’s always done best: deflect. 

“We should look into this soon Arbor, before we go to Halamshiral.”

“If that is what you want.”

He’s not sure it is, but he won’t contradict her. Too many things left unsaid and when their eyes meet, they long to forget she was ever there. She chewed her bottom lip as Varric tapped his fingers against his leg, and even with conversation and voices surrounding them, it still felt as if their silence consumed them. In the distance Alada noticed a flash of purple and blue weaving between the crowd and knew that her daughters were up to something. The door leading down to the kitchen opened and closed without anyone tall enough to reach over the crowd, confirmed her suspicions, and she released a loving sigh. She stepped around Varric to leave, but stopped and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. 

“Goodbye.”

Not wanting to prolong this uncomfortable exchange any longer, she rushed away, avoiding his farewell and sorrowful eyes. Removed from his presence, she could breathe a little easier but the knot in her stomach would not cease. She closed her eyes, took a moment for herself, then returned to her previous task. Maybe wrangling her two little troublemakers would distract her from the upcoming expedition with Varric’s “Bianca”. 

* * *

2.

Alada’s mood soured with each incessant water droplet crashing onto her head in the underground cave, and she knew nothing could stop it. Every time her eyes drifted to the pair ahead of them, her jaw constricted and her right hand gripped onto her staff even more, as her marked hand pulsed every so often in response to her agitation. The Iron Bull and Dorian had not stopped exchanging wary glances over her head from the moment they entered the cave, and each wondered if it would be wiser to say something or keep out of it. After the third huff in a row from her, and Dorian swearing he could hear the grinding coming from her mouth, he tapped her foot with the veridium hilt from his staff. 

“If you keep gritting your teeth like that, I’ve no doubt they’ll be whittled down to the nub soon.”

Alada glared at his smug grin and let a low noise from the base of her throat escape her lips which The Iron Bull jumped onto. 

“If you keep growling like that we might mistake you for a jaguar as well.”

“If you both keep talking like this, my next spell might be a little off its mark next time,” Alada snarled. 

She quickened her pace to get away from them, but their longer strides reduced the distance between them in no time and they stood on either side of her again. They shared a silent conversation on whether to push this matter and risk getting chewed out or let their illustrious leader continue to damage her mouth further. Dorian gestured to the top of her head, urging Bull to take this one, then took a step away from her to get out of the danger zone. Bull rolled his eye but relented to Dorian, and also tried to position himself away from the expected lashing out that would occur from his next statement. 

“Come on boss, it’s not our fault the ex-girlfriend of the man you’ve been pining after showed up out of nowhere.” 

Bull went to say something else, but a quick swipe of Alada’s hand created a small patch of ice right in front of the foot he was setting down, causing him to stumble forward. Dorian snorted and Alada gave him a look of wide eyed innocence, but the tiny lift of her scarred mouth gave her away. 

“That was hurtful, Boss.”

“I don’t pine,” she sniffed.

Alada eyes returned to the backs of the two leading the party and she readjusted her armor and the chain around her neck to convince herself she wasn’t staring. Bianca and Varric didn’t even seem to notice the disturbance behind them, instead they continued to speak to each other in low tones with their heads pulled together. She clenched her jaw at the sight but let go at the sound of Dorian humming beside her. It had been like this the entire time; Varric and Bianca in their own world up ahead while the other three strained their ears to catch even a snippet of their conversation. The few times they did hear what they said, was nothing less than shameless flirting. 

Alada breathed through her nose and frowned. She had no right to feel like this. Bianca, both the crossbow and the person, were close to Varric in a way she wasn’t. Her and Varric were… friends, nothing more. Bianca was part of a history she would never know, and there could be nothing done about it. Still, walking into what had to be a trap increased her worry about the whole situation. She wished there was more to this lead than a simple “trust me,” from both of them, but she would not disappoint Varric by ignoring his request. Noticing her too far into her own mind, Bull leaned in to conspire in her ear, 

“You could say something, boss.”

“You could back off.”

“Carefull, Bull. Our dear Alada does not take kindly to those who intrude upon her personal life.” 

She sighed then pushed Bull’s arm in an apology. It was unfair to treat him and Dorian like this, they were not the cause of her anger, not all of it anyway. Even if she didn’t want their help at least they recognized the... _emotions_ she held for Varric, because it seemed he didn’t even notice her when Bianca kept touching him like that. The two stopped in front of a large metal door, waiting for the rest with an easy grin on one face and a distracted smile on the other. At their arrival, Bianca twirled a large key around her fingers then opened the mechanical lock with a soft ‘’ta-da”. Alada just peered into the room, accessing it for potential danger then gave a wave to continue. 

“I thought you would be impressed,” Bianca said.

“We see weird shit everyday, I think you’ll have to do something more to impress the Inquisitor,” Varric replied.

“Is that right?”

“Can we move on?” Alada stopped them with a wave of her staff and a push between them to get through the door. 

Varric grunted at her elbow colliding into his chest as Bianca side-stepped a potential thwack from her dragon bone hilt from Alada’s forced entry into the room. They encountered several more enemies, and the nagging feeling on the back of Alada’s neck did not stop the entire time. Something was wrong, and she swore it had nothing to do with how effortlessly Bianca and Varric fought side by side and how they charmed one other with every other sentence. The smiles Varric gave Alada eased her tension a bit, even if they did not meet his eyes most of the time. After the connected rooms were cleared and Bianca used her own key to seal the entrance to the Deep Roads, Alada closed her eyes. Of course. This was what she was waiting for, but Bianca’s deception did not bring any satisfaction. Not when it made Varric’s whole body collapse into himself and his voice crack. Varric was terse and Bianca matched him in tone and anger, as Alada pinched her nose and ignored their entire argument. As they continued to bicker, she raised her voice to get them to stop,

“Enough! It’s over now. At least this wasn’t a complete waste of time.”

Varric shook his head and backed away from Bianca with such a wounded and resigned expression covering his face, it made Alada reach out as he turned away. Bianca grabbed onto her sleeve, and looking down Alada saw wrathful eyes drilling into her. With as much intimidation as she could muster, Bianca stared right at her.

“Get him killed and I’ll feed you your own eyeballs Trevelyan.”

Bianca took a step forward to get her point across but in a flash Alada brought out her obsidian knife and pressed the sharp edge to her throat. She did not exert any pressure but looked deep into Bianca’s eyes letting the cold blade against her bare skin speak for her. After a few seconds, Alada pulled away and put it back into its holster. She turned and clapped a stunned Dorian on the back to get him to move and gestured for Bull to follow. Alada walked out of the room looking forward, evading a waiting Varric leaned against a door frame. She bit her lip and rubbed the lapis lazuli stones that decorated her knife with her thumb, hoping to find comfort within them. With determined steps back to the surface, she did not look back once, no matter how much her body yearned to.

* * *

3.

As Alada sat on her chaise, the sweeping words and intricate descriptions to _The Heart of Asha_ blurred and lost their impact the longer she held the book. The comforting plot and poetic sentences by her favorite author refused to keep her attention like it normally did. This sleepy afternoon, with no meetings or anything that needed her immediate attention, did not bring the peacefulness she expected from it. She sat alone in her room and the quiet laziness, with the occasional chirp of a bird or a muffled conversation floating in through her open windows, did not calm her. After spending a few minutes looking off into space she knew rest would not come and she decided to give up on her novel and set it away from her. She donned her well-worn sweater and made her way downstairs to the kitchens for some hot chocolate, hoping that would brighten her day. 

In the Great Hall, joyful laughter bounced across the stone walls and made their way to Alada’s ears, making her stop at the edge of the room. Ella and Clara were laying down on Varric’s table, reading several papers and waving their hands to him, chatting away. He wore an open smile that made his eyes crinkle and she did not stop looking at the way his shoulders shook from the laugh he gave her daughters. Two days had passed since Valammar and Alada made it her mission to avoid him at any cost. It proved difficult when he camped out right at the center point of Skyhold. It made her walk faster every time she felt him watching, and to go out of her way to avoid that spot every chance she could. 

Now she enjoyed the sight of him in this moment and leaned more into the table she stood beside. Eyes the same as hers narrowed in on her and with a silent wave from Clara and a shout of “mamá!” from her sister, she had no choice but to walk over. Ella’s head hung upside down over the table and grinned with her tongue poking slightly out of her gapped teeth, while Clara continued reading. Varric took one hurried glance in her direction then drummed his fingers against the table as she walked toward them. Alada tried to focus on her girls and make sure she didn’t stumble, but her eyes could not help wandering over to him. When she stood in front of them, Ella kicked the stack of papers around them onto the floor from her excitement when she bolted up from her position.

“I’m sorry!”

Alada touched her shoulder, a gentle push to get her to help pick the scattered pages up, and she compiled as Clara joined her sister with a graceful hop onto the floor. Alada also knelt down, gathering the pages nearest her and saw Varric push his chair back. With over exaggerated noises of protest, he lowered himself to the stone floor and waved off any more apologies. 

“Don’t worry, accidents happen.”

The group continued shuffling through the pages, having given up trying to put them in order and even made a game of who could build the highest stack in front of them. Varric and Alada reached for a page in the middle, hands brushing as they did so, before they flinched away from each other as if burned. Ella took the moment to snatch the page for herself then faced her mother. 

“Mamá, why were you staring?” she asked.

“I wanted to see what you were doing.”

“Isn’t it rude to stare?” Clara question. 

“I suppose so. Then I guess I’m sorry.”

The twins shared a look before turning simultaneously to Varric and tilting their heads in the opposite direction.

“Are you ok with it Varric?”

“The staring? I guess...”

“Then we all accept your apology, mamá.”

“I see evenings with Dorian, Josephine, and Vivienne are teaching you both so much.”

The serious, detached expressions on both their faces, quickly fell away to laughter. Afterwards, all four stood facing each other, not sure what to do now after the cleanup. Ella tapped her foot as Clara watched the two adults still refuse to make eye contact with each other. With a tug on her sister’s arm, Clara prompted Ella to make their exit. 

“We have to go.”

“Where?” Alada frowned. They had nothing pressing to do today, and she narrowed her eyes at them, remembering the cooks asking her if they had anything to do with the missing tray of sweet breads days previous _._

“Stables,” Clara answered at the same time as Ella's, “Sera’s”.

“Sera’s then the stables,” Clara explained.

Varric smiled at the girls and shook his head at their precarious save. Before any further questioning could begin, the girls bounced away to the castle grounds, but not before Alada caught a familiar twinkle in Ella’s eyes that made her heart ache. Standing in front of each other, with no other distractions, Alada and Varric had no clue where to start. Asking about how they were would be the easiest thing to do, but then the subject of their mutual evasiveness would have to be acknowledged. Alada snuck a glance in his direction, saw how he messed with the silver buttons on his shirt, and remembered how Bianca kept lacing her fingers through those same clasps only a few days ago. The thought of her and everything she put them though reignited her anger and she could not stay silent about it any longer. 

“Valammar could’ve gone much worse you know.”

“Yes, I-I know.”

“How could you not tell she was lying about something?”

“She has a knack for keeping me in the dark,” he mumbled.

She winced and was glad he looked in another direction so that he did not notice it. For some unknown reason, she wanted to test how little Bianca really shared information with him. Whether she told him about their ‘exchange’ after he departed or not. She tried to keep her voice steady, to not let anything betray herself but she still needed to know. 

“Right after you left, she threatened me to keep you safe… or else.”

“I’m sorry Arbor, she’s- well I don’t know if I have the right words to describe her.”

“So it’s Arbor now, not Inquisitor?”  
“That-”

“It’s fine, Varric.”

Alada pursed her lips, wishing she hadn’t brought that up, but she wouldn't let it go. Varric did nothing but address her by her title the entire time in the Deep Roads entrance, even when knowing it was the one thing she could not stand. With such hostility shared between them, this discussion was getting them nowhere but Alada had to ask one final question. 

“Will you see her again?”

“I always do,” he responded. 

She didn’t know if she imagined the resigned and pained touch to his voice or if she wanted to hear that, but she reveled in it anyway. Having nothing more to say, her shoulder brushed past him as she walked back to her room but before she could take another step, Alada turned half her face to look at him.

“Maybe you shouldn’t,” she murmured. Without looking back to confirm he heard, she rushed to the door leading to her private rooms and shut it with a final bang that echoed across the hall.

* * *

4.

Alada laughed at the sight of Dorian slumped in between Blackwall and Josephine, humming some Tevinter drinking song to himself, with his arms draped over his escort’s shoulders and feet dragging across the wooden floor boards. Toward the end of Wicked Grace night, after Josie had all but cleaned everyone of the money they brought with them, a drinking game broke out between Bull, Dorian, Leliana, and Sera. Naturally, Leliana won and left the others wobbling or passed out around the third floor of the Herald’s Rest. Many patrons of the bar had already departed and only a few stragglers remained including her, but her seat in front of the fireplace seemed too good to let go at the moment. Dorian and company finally left down the steps but not before he gave her a lazy salute and a wag of his eyebrows as he disappeared from view. 

“Thank you for doing this.”

Inclining her head slightly, Alada saw Varric standing in front of her, running his hands through his hair and smiling down at her. She patted the empty space on the rug next to her and Varric complied, thighs gently hitting against hers as he sat down with only a minimal amount of groaning and protest. Alada shifted her weight onto her hands and reclined backwards, throwing her head back and basking in the heat radiating from the fire. 

“We could all use some time like this once and awhile,” she sighed. 

“True. I still didn’t expect you to be so competitive, Arbor.”

“What’s the point of playing if you don’t win?”

Varric chuckled and recalled how upset she looked after each loss, and how quickly she gave up and turned to spectate Josephine’s winning streak. Looking back at him, she didn’t conceal her sly grin or light giggle. Minutes passed in comfortable silence as they studied each other. He could say something, but to do so would break the spell they were in. Amber eyes turned almost orange from the firelight held perfect contact with light brown ones, as the world fell away from Alada and Varric. Each set was clear with no sign of hesitation, avoidance, or discomfort that permeated them for the past week. Instead it's an emotion they both thought was lost to them forever. They’re near but not enough to touch, and some unknown force rectifies that problem by making their bodies seek each other out, causing their hands to move against each other and finally lay on top of the other.

His breath was short and he doesn’t know whether it’s from the alcohol or how he can see pure streaks of gold like the sun’s rays glimmer within her eyes. He knew they did not drink that much tonight, but he didn’t want to confess how affected he was by just her gaze. She did not bother stopping an escaped gasp as she focused on the curve of his jawline, while he traced the scar on her lips with intense eyes as they moved ever closer. With such close proximity their noses brushed and both felt a sliver of their lips on top of each other, when a loud thump from the table behind startled them. They backed away and saw Bull massaging his leg and glaring at Sera for his rude awakening, as she rubbed the side of her head muttering to herself. 

“Did I win?”

Sera looked around the room through an unfocused stare as Bull took one glance at the two and realized what happened. With a gracefulness only he could provide, he swept Sera out from under the table and over his shoulder to take her back downstairs. 

“Come on Sera, let’s get you to bed.”

It was their cue to leave and Varric and Alada took it, with her jumping to her feet and holding an outstretched hand to him. With one harsh pull, he fell into her, making him reach out and catch her to prevent her from toppling back onto the ground. They stayed like that for a moment, his arms embraced around her, but Alada stepped back and jerked her head in the direction of the main castle. Wordlessly they exited the Herald’s Rest, keeping close to one another in the crisp night air with no conversation between them. Alada stretched her hands to the sky and the loose blouse she wore that night rode up, exposing the skin of her stomach to the moonlight. Her head fell back between the circle she made with her arms, extending her neck, and making Varric clench his hands against his thighs. 

In no time, they arrived at the point in the Great Hall where they would have to part ways. She looked in no hurry to leave his side, with one hand curling around a strand of hair and the other resting on her hip that stuck out to the side. Alada had the appearance of complete composure as she gazed down at him, while Varric twisted the ring on his thumb and looked up at her through the top of his lashes. 

“Well I guess I should say goodnight,” he coughed away the roughness of his voice while she raised one eyebrow at him. 

“So soon?”

“Were you thinking of something else?” 

The one hip that stood out straightened and in her eyes was the same intensity and exposing gaze like the one back at the Herald’s Rest. Panicked, Varric took a step away from her. Excitement and fear ran up his spine at what she wanted, if she wanted anything at all and if it wasn’t his writer’s mind getting away from him. Could she _..._

“A nightcap, in your room? I hear you have your own stash of vintage Nevarran whisky.”

Varric hesitated, it wasn’t exactly what he expected but the way her smile glowed from the dying firelight across the hall did something to him. How can he say no to her when she looked at him in that way? He nodded and turned around before confidence left him, and made his way to his room, hoping he wouldn't trip over his feet in the process. She followed behind, close enough that he swore he could feel her breath on the back of his neck and the graze of her hand along his shoulder. It’s a short walk, up only one flight of stairs and before long they’re at another impasse in front of the door to his room. With an exaggerated tug on the handle, Varric let her in and his stomach dropped as he realized what a mess he lived in. 

Papers containing his works in progress and excerpts from his next book were haphazardly laying about. The covers on his bed were thrown on the floor and sitting on the table in front of them was a terrible attempt at a poem about raven hair and golden eyes. Fast as he could, he reached out to crumble the offending page with a mumbled “trash” to answer her amused expression, and threw it into the fireplace under the guise of stoking the dying embers. Alada sat down without invitation and watched as he moved across the spacious bedroom to pour their drinks. The smell of dried parchment, smoky leather, and his distinct cologne of sandalwood enveloped her and steadied her pounding heart. Not long after, he joined her on the couch and they clinked the crystal glasses before taking a sip. 

The alcohol burned down their throats and rested deep within their stomachs, creating a familiar warmth that spread within them. It could not match the bright intensity building deep inside them since the beginning of the night. Alada shifted closer and he couldn’t help but do the same, causing them to practically fall in each other’s laps. Varric went to say something but she stopped him with a light touch of her finger on his lips. He closed his eyes at the contact and moaned at the feel of her palm in his hair releasing the leather tie and letting his orange locks fall onto his face. When he opened his eyes, she’s right there, waiting on him with so much want in her gaze he leaned in to close the gap. It was only a light meeting of their lips before he pulled away to rest his forehead against hers. 

“Could we- could we really Aly?” he whispered. 

“Yes,” she breathed. 

And with no more hesitation they kissed with a passion and fire that seemed to grow between them for what felt like an eternity, now poured out at once. Without breaking contact and with little effort he pulled her into his lap, making their bodies collide and receiving a deep groan from her that he matched. She wasted no time undoing his shirt and with resistance from the last few buttons, she tore it open. 

“That shirt’s expen-!”

Her hands snaked their way up his torso, resting in the thick expanse of his chest hair and with the break of their kiss to make that comment, she bit his neck to leave her mark on him. Varric gripped her ass tighter and pulled her even closer to his chest to get a better angle to nibble the side of the jaw he’d admired for so long. Alada’s hands did not know where to settle, either within his dense chest hair or to hold onto the arm muscles she’s only ever dreamed about, so she decided to wrap them around his neck and continue kissing him insistently. Varric’s hands moved beneath her shirt to trace circles on her back and only slightly digged into her when she bit his lower lip. He removed his hands and swiped his thumb over her collarbone for a minute before tracing the golden chain around her neck, which made her push away from him. 

She’s breathless and her lips were swollen and he gave her a self-satisfied grin because he caused this, even though he no doubt looked the same as her. With a flick of her eyes she motioned to the unkempt bed as a silent question and he agreed by setting her onto the floor and rising from the couch himself. They rounded the couch on either side to meet in front of the bed, but when he went to make a comment she rushed over to cover his mouth with her hand, a stern gaze covering her face. 

“No narrating, please.”

His reply was muffled and she replaced her palm with her mouth in a kiss so tender it made his heart flip. After a moment he nudged her to fall onto the bed with an excited laugh and a wide grin as she grabbed his still covered hips to pull him on top of her. He kissed her, hoping he could convey everything he felt but couldn’t express with words in the moment, and that she understood it. They stayed in that moment for some time before Alada pushed his shoulder to put him on his back so she could straddle him and look down into a face full of need and desire that mirrored her own. She gulped, a brief instance of shyness, before she took off her linen shirt and released her breast band for him. With one last sigh, Alada leaned down and devoured Varric’s lips as he rubbed his hands at the newly exposed flesh and surrendered to the all encompassing feeling of _her_ for the rest of the night. 


End file.
